Afghan children play on a swing near a cemetery in Kabul, Afghanistan. Civilian casualties in the Afghan war rose 23 percent in the first half of this year due to Taliban attacks and increased fighting between insurgents and government forces, the U. N. said.

Black oily sludge is seen on sand as cleaning operations continue at Ao Prao Beach on Koh Samet, Rayong, Thailand. An oil spill that has blackened beaches at the holiday island of Koh Samet was having an extreme impact on tourism and could spread to the coast of the mainland and affect the fishing industry, officials and an environmental group said.

The hamadryas baboons behave strangely at the Emmen Zoo in Emmen, in the Netherlands. They don't usually eat and sit close together in trees and a small corner of their island. A few years back the same group of baboons showed a similar behavior of mass apathy.

A 70-foot long ocean racing yacht named 'Great Britain' is pictured in Trafalgar Square in central London. The yacht will take part in the ninth edition of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2013-14 which leaves London on September 1, 2013, where competitors are expected to travel 40,000 miles.

A steel worker stands near a pile of guns to be melted at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's 20th annual Gun Melt at the Gerdau Steel Mill in Rancho Cucamonga, California, USA, July 30, 2013. According to press releases from the sheriff's office, 5,495 weapons confiscated from criminals in Los Angeles County and collected through a gun buyback program are being melted and reformed as steel rebar at the mill.

Czech Republic's Michal Navratil performs an exhibition dive dressed as Superman at the end of the men's 27m high diving final during the World Swimming Championships at Moll de la Fusta in Barcelona, Spain.

Vice-Admiral Pierre Warnauts, head of protocol of the Household of His Majesty the King, adjusts the hat of Queen Mathilde of Belgium after a mass commemorating the 20th anniversary of King Baudouin's death at Saint Gudule cathedral in Brussels.